Toryism

03.25.132:52 PM ET

David Cameron Loses Tim Montgomerie

Wow. Like Lyndon Johnson losing Walter Cronkite over Vietnam, it's big news that David Cameron has lost Tim Montgomerie: Conservative intellectual-activist, founder of the popular ConservativeHome website, and newly appointed comment editor of the London Times.

I have never been a huge fan of Cameron. The über-modernisation. The disregard for the views of Tory MPs and grassroot members. The incompetent 2010 general election campaign. The rush to coalition, including a badly-negotiated deal on AV. The decision to backload spending cuts and frontload tax rises. The lack of a proper growth strategy. This last week has taken me to a new place, however. The shambolic handling of press regulation. The decision to offer a childcare subsidy that wasn't in the Coalition Agreement - alongside a failure to deliver a marriage tax allowance that was. And, most significantly, the Budget that gave up on deficit reduction and, in its place, announced a housing policy that may create another dangerous boom.